no knead bread

Last week I really spoilt myself and bought a French cast iron casserole dish. I've never had one of these beautiful things and I've been wanting one for a while. One of the recipes I wanted to try with it was this one, all over the internet a while ago, the New York Times recipe for No Knead bread. It takes a while, mostly resting and then you cook it in a covered pot. Mixed last night and then rested today, we got to cook it this afternoon and it was worth the wait :-)


I'm also really interested in the book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes which uses similar principles of slow rising and no knead. I've made up a batch of their Brioche mix to try caramel scrolls tomorrow. They have their master recipes on their blog so you can experiment with them before you buy the book.

The idea is you keep a master batch of dough in the fridge and break a piece off each day to bake. The long gestation adds flavour. Different techniques and additions give you an amazing range of breads. And there's no kneading, its mixed in the container and left to do its thing.

(I also finished joining all my squares yesterday for my quilt. Very overcast and I didn't get a good photo but I'll post it tomorrow! I just love it, can't stop looking at it! Now I have to work out how to do the next bit!)

sshhhh...

A lovely parcel full of these little gems arrived yesterday (and another on its way, I might have got a little carried away!) These fabrics come from Fabric Shack. Great prices and what great service, I ordered them last Thursday and they were here by yesterday! They are mostly small cuts, 1/4 yards for quilting.

Some of these will go perfectly with the squares I've already cut and I'm hoping to cut some more today and fit them into the design. I found Fabric Shack via the inspiring and beautiful Red Pepper Quilts blog. I just love her quilts, the colours and the layouts.

learn to sew - quilt 1

A little progress over the weekend. I cut a lot more blocks with the rotary cutter following the instructions in my book* which show how to cut with the grain and square up accurately when cutting on the fold. I got better and more confident as I went along.

This quilt is just a very simple design of large squares. I didn't want to be too ambitious. I chose some fabrics from my stash that went well together, blues and acid greens, yellow and a touch of pink. Choices include new fabrics, my Spoonflower swatches, gingham, handprinted and vintage material. The white is a quilting cotton from Remnants Warehouse.


All the material was prewashed and pressed. I found the best results with my rotary cutter when I pushed down (not forward) and went back and forward each few inches. You can hear when its cutting. The few times I didn't cut all the way through were very annoying and usually happened in the first inch or two, it's very hard to go back and cut accurately once you've moved the ruler. I cut strips and then cut them into blocks. If I tried to bring the rotary cutter back down the ruler I found I usually swerved off and ruined the cut edge for the next strip. So I stopped doing that! The 24" quilting ruler was invaluable, it held the material in place and made it easy to square things.


I'm making my blocks 5 1/2" so that the finished size is 5 inches - because as I found out to my initial concern quilting seams are always meant to be 1/4"!! Luckily I read somewhere else about a special quilting foot that has exactly a quarter inch edge to it to make it easier to sew these seams accurately. I tracked one down easily for my ancient Janome (and in a rush of blood to the head bought a free motion quilting foot for playing with later) and its great.


I have sewn together all the coloured blocks to a white square saving time by chain stitching (not cutting threads between) and yesterday pressed all the seams to the printed side. That way when I turn one and sew them into four square blocks the seams will be opposite each other, in theory :-)

* The book is called The Magic of Quiltmaking, A Beginner's Guide by Margaret Rolfe and Jenny Bowker published by That Patchwork Place imprint of Martingale and Company. ISBN 1-56477-502-X (follow the link to buy it).